I had to take stock of exactly what I had to my name at this point. My mind was abuzz with possibility and it was almost making me manic with ideas.'

The plan had worked. My stupid, made up on the spot plan had worked. It was insane.

I had around sixty troops with varying degrees of training and all of them were clad in well fitting armor. Weapons were of course provided to them.

I had one Alpha head full of teeth that I was probably going to use later as a decorative centerpiece.

I had one soul bound dagger which was sticking to me whether I liked it or not.

I had one island in name only.

I had one guard base full of art and not too many practical things.

I had one satchel filled with several gems and a unicorn horn.

And those were all of the things that I had that could easily be explained in even more detail. What really had me worried were some of the more powerful beings in my employ:

Canary. I thought him to be a plotting and powerful individual who for some reason was helping me take over the island. He was my chief adviser. I had a feeling that he had lied to me several times already and I just didn't know enough to see through his false words.

Boss. The Diamond dog who had thrown me into slavery in the first place. Half of me wanted to kill her and half of me wanted to keep her alive so that she could help clear the island of dissidents. She wanted an island.

Terror. The massive griffon who guided me into slavery and quite frankly almost made me wet myself. He was an outlier. He promised to fight on my side as long as I deal with his problem.

And there was his problem. Some tentacled thing was munching on the slaves I hadn't freed yet.

But the fires were out. Which was very good. If I could get some sort of quick system of transport between the compounds I could start mining again.

Talon looked oddly at me. I must've zoned off again. "Right. Do you know where the library is on this island?" I asked him.

We were standing in front of the Guard base waiting for Boss to wake up. Canary was standing over from the side watching us both.

I sighed a bit. This conversation really wasn't going any where. "Right. How much do you want to bet that the Magickers are behind that tentacled thing?"

Canary shrugged. "I haven't heard of any new activity from them. It has only been a day, though."

I glared at him. There were too many variables in my equation. I'd have to start eliminating them shortly. "Go to my room and wait for me."

I had to be almost clinical at this point. I had so few troops that the loss of any of them, even the ones that I thought were suspicious, could potentially issue forth an insurmountable obstacle.

I had a wave, maybe more than one wave, of slavers that were going to try and retake the island. And the thought of that scared me more than I realized.

"One step at a time." I mumbled. I looked around and spotted Canary walking away and Terror looking at me expectantly. I could only assume I had nodded and mumbled my way through his talk.

I watched him and it almost looked like he was swimming in the air. I shook my head to try and clear it and odd colors swam in the corners of my eyes.

And suddenly I could smell. And there was smoke in the air and the air was rank and slightly foul. And it almost tingled with electricity. Like waves of power were buffeting through the air. All I could smell was copper and the air tasted like static. My legs felt like gelatin.

Wait a second... gelatin is made fr-

Ok. Wrong simile to use there.

My mind felt like it was running a rat race just to process exactly what was in front of me. The massive griffon in front of me almost looked demonic with the flashes of color floating in front of him and cloaking him in a miasma of corrupted vision.

Terror opened his beak. "Yes. We should take this plan a step at a time. Are you sure you are ok?" I shut my eyes tightly and fought off the sudden waves of nausea.

I shook my head. "Not... really." I barely slurred it out of my mouth. Something was wrong... I couldn't... everything was coming in through a fog. "But... I'll be fine. L-let's just take out the stupid library."

I gripped Disconsolate tightly in my mouth to try and take the edge off of it. It barely worked.

"The second you take care of what's in the mine I will kill you." It was Terror's voice.

I opened my eyes and stared at him. "What?" I slowly backed away.

"I said that we should take the library soon."

I stared into his eyes and tried not to let on how off his voice was sounding. I shut my eyes again. "Yeah. Good idea. Let's do that." When I opened them, the world was back to crystal clear.

He looked at me oddly and I caught the faintest whiff of confusion through the air. Which was odd, as I had never smelled confusion before. It smelled vaguely like cinnamon mashed into apple banana jelly. Not the best smell in the world but far from the worst I had ever smelled.

The point of the matter was that I couldn't smell normally since I had been in the mines. None of the Canaries could smell normally. It was assumed that the toxic gasses literally seared the portion of the exposed nerves responsible for smelling in a way that prevented the extreme 'OH SHIT THIS IS TOXIC' reaction that you would expect from being exposed to several highly toxic gasses several times in a day.

And since when could I smell confusion? That was just weird.

I shook my head again. All of that quiet contemplation was doing nothing to abate Terror's query.

"Right... After this, I'm going to request that you take a nice long nap." I could almost hear his feathers catch against the wind. "Die you freak."

It was almost like someone was slowly unstopping my senses one by one. And then added some paranoia motivated broadcast thing for thoughts.

Honestly, the entire thing was making me paranoid. Much like most things on the island.

I smiled lightly. "I'll have to accept that. Now, I'm going to rally the troops and then we are going to take out the library." I had to keep calm and show no weakness. They were all predators circling me, watching for any signs of weakness so that they could pounce upon it.

In my new position of power, I felt more like prey than I had ever felt before. It was like I was in the scopes of a sniper and he was waiting for the perfect shot to scatter my brains everywhere in a cloud of lost ideas and shattered dreams. I could almost feel the prickle of someone's talons raking across my throat or the agony of being stabbed... again.

I bit down on the knife until my teeth started to ache before smiling at Talon. "Any other questions?" A coppery taste was slowly filling my mouth, but the smell was driving my senses into a wild frenzy like I had thrown them for a loop and they were still returning to me.

He was looking at me like I had grown another head. "You do realize that you just cut your cheek, right?" "Freak."

That must be where the coppery taste was coming from. I nodded dumbly. "It was my intention." Show no weakness.

"Your intention was to cut your cheek?" He rolled his eyes and turned away. "Just remember our deal." His voice was cold steel and cut straight through me.

I shivered despite the sun. There was almost a nip in the air that necessitated some kind of covering on the islanders. Almost.

I had to wonder where the heck Rej was in the scheme of things. I was in the same world as Equestria, why else would there be griffons and Diamond dogs and magic and crap?

I turned back to my new base and walked inside while wondering about all of it.

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Canary was waiting in my room. "Ivan?" "He smells nice."

I stared wordlessly and pointed out of my room. "Get out."

"But Ivan, I have to tell you something." He sighed after speaking.

"GET. OUT." I grit my teeth together.

He looked at me. "I'm already leaving." He kicked a package on the floor that was wrapped in paper.

I watched him leave and tapped my front right hoof against the ground. "Give me a moment." I mumbled to him.

"What?" He seemed confused about my order.

"Where are we?"

"In your room, Ivan. I was ordered here BY you before you left to talk with Terror. The writing supplies arrived as you ordered."

"Where is the island of Rej located at?" I sat down on the bed.

"It is located just off the coast of the Volcanic Wastes. Occasionally the slavers would hire guards from there. Or so I was told at least. It's quite a bit too far to swim just it's a pretty easy journey if you take a ship. That's how they got us over here."

He nodded like he had said something mildly intelligent for once in his life.

I touched the blade of my knife. It was rather soothing, like menthol spreading through my body. The red tinges to my vision were back. "Tell our troops to prepare to rest. We attack on the morn. Lock my door, I really don't want any idiot waking me up before then."

He stood up and shut the door and carefully locked it with a hint of magic from his feather.

I was left alone in silence with only the sounds of my mental cogs working and the always present breathing.

And then I collapsed into sleep.

You know that chapter you want to stab yourself over? That's this chapter. But screw this chapter.